


Time is Not So Kind

by FanficMagicalGirl



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Fluff, Gen, I Tried, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 01:44:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19938004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanficMagicalGirl/pseuds/FanficMagicalGirl
Summary: Maybe things would have been different if they'd calibrated the collider before sending people through it.Maybe things would have been different if Peni'd landed in a dimension with the resources to get her home.But things weren't different. Peni landed in Peter's dimension, and that's how it was.





	Time is Not So Kind

At first, falling through the collider was agony, like glitching but countless times worse as his body was launched through the dimensions, blasting past them like tissue paper. Then, it became relief, soothing away an ache he hadn’t realized he was feeling until then, the lingering pain of his cells dying, atoms being ripped apart by the wrongness of a world that isn’t his.

When Peter finally crashed into his office, sending papers flying in every direction, he collapsed into his chair and flicked a match, watching the flames cast soothingly monochromatic shadows in every direction. The smoke rose in a single wisp, curling and coiling skyward. As it reached a stub, he momentarily considered waiting for it to burn him before deciding against it and snubbing out the flames with a pinch of his fingers. There would be time for that later, but for now, he needed to get his bearings, figure out how long he’d been gone, if he’d been gone any time at all. For that, he needed a newspaper. Sure, his wall calendar was the same as when he’d left, but he hadn’t been there to change it.

As he adjusted his hat, someone knocked on his door. With what was almost a smile, Peter turned to open the door. A normal, easy case with no dimension-hopping or alternate spider-beings might be exactly what he needed at the moment. But when he eased the door open, what greeted him was not his standard, familiar 1933 civilian. Instead, Peni Parker beamed back at him. 

Even cast in the colorlessness of his home, she was incongruous, too bright for the world around her. He could almost feel the painfully brilliant colors radiating off of her. 

“Hello!”

“Hello, Peni.” Why was she here? Had she already decided that she missed him and come to see him? Was that even possible? A spider crawled along her neck, and she smiled. Suddenly, Peni screamed and collapsed, body splitting into bits and pieces. He recognized it immediately; she was still glitching. “Why are you here?”

“I went through the collider, but I didn’t get to my world. Now I’m here.” Wait. If she was in the wrong world, she was still glitching. And if she came directly from Miles’ to Peter’s, she’d never had time to recover, which meant… oh, god. She was almost out of time.

“It hurts. Do you know a way to get me home?” 

“Kid, this is 1933. I’m sorry, but we don’t have your super fancy interdimensional gizmos, so unless you know how to build one, you’re stuck here.” She finally stopped smiling, her bright eyes clouding over with tears.

“I don’t.” Her tears began to fall then, running slowly down her face. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she pulled herself into him as some form of a hug. He just stood there as she cried into him, uncertain of how to proceed – no one had hugged Peter in years- he just stood there as she cried into him. Finally, he squeezed her shoulder. Peni looked up at him.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said, knowing full well that it wasn’t. She probably had less than a day. “Come on.” She followed him out of his office and down into the street. The people passing by gave them sideways looks as he led her down the street, mind racing. He needed to do something, anything. Peter steered her into a diner, where he ordered two egg creams and told her to wait there. When he came back with the frothy drinks, he saw that she had sat down at a booth. He settled himself down across from her, noticing that she had dried her face and was smiling at him.

“Thank you, Mr. Parker!” He nodded. “So, what can we do? Maybe I can build something if we can find the right supplies, then I can go-”

“Peni. The right supplies don’t exist here. We don’t have televisions, let alone the capacity for inter-dimensional travel.” Her grin began to waver. “I’m going to be entirely honest with you. I don’t think you can go home. And if you never made it home, then… you don’t have much more time before the displacement becomes too much.” For a moment, she looked crushed, and he almost regretted saying that. But then she smiled again. To the untrained eye, it was a strange and sudden turn-around, but Peter was a detective. He recognized it immediately. Peni was smiling through the tears, putting on a brave face. It was admirable, if unnecessary. 

Setting his now-empty glass on the table, he leaned forward and looked her in the eye. “You have to decide. What do you want to do? You can dig for leads to get you home, but you won’t find anything. Or you can choose to spend the day doing whatev-” he was cut off as she glitched again, face contorting as she bit back another scream. Despite her efforts, the other people turned to stare at them. Mutters of ‘what’s happening’ and ‘is she okay’ rippled through the diner. 

When the glitch ended, she sat upright, seemingly determined to pretend it had never happened. “I want to go out with a bang!” Her eyes shone in the harsh light the diner. He couldn’t tell if it was her tears or the fact that her eyes just did that. “Let’s do something fun!”

“Okay, kid.” He got to his feet, and she followed him outside. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. Your dimension is so different from mine. What do you like to do?”

“I mean, I fight Nazis, I listen to jazz, but I don’t know that a kid would like to do any of those.”

“Let’s fight people! I’m good at that! SP//dr and I-” Her voice cracked. “Oh.” He put his hand on her shoulder. 

“Come on.” He led her back to his office, where she sat in the chair usually reserved for his clients. “We can fight someone- I’m certain that there is someone in this city who deserves it. If you don’t want to do that, we can find something else to do. I’m sure there are things that would be fun for you.” She nodded. The spider crawled onto her neck. Peni picked it up and smiled.

“Yeah! Let’s do it! Let’s find something cool to do!” Peter smiled softly. She was braver than most people he knew, even if that manifested in wanting to do random things and have fun in the face of death. It was an admirable trait in anyone, but especially for someone so young in a situation so dire. He would miss her. Nodding, they made their way back outside and into the streets, Peter still trying to figure out where they could go. 

They just wandered the city, looking for signs. Every so often, Peni would point to something on the street, and he would have to explain to her what it was. Most of the time, once she realized what it was, she would lose interest in it and keep going. As they rounded a corner, they heard a scream. Several feet ahead of them, a man with a gun was running out of a convenience store, pursued by a man in a clerk’s uniform, who was shouting at him. Peter’s eyes immediately shot to the broken glass on the ground and the sack the gunman was carrying. A robbery.

“Looks like you may be getting your fight, after all, Peni.” She beamed.

“Let’s do this!” She took off, her spider crawling down her arm as she stood in front of the man. Peter sighed, following her. The man just darted around her, but she grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the road. Confused, he leveled his gun at her. 

That’s when Peter got involved. He’d been fully content to let her handle it, but things were getting out of hand. She was a spider-person, sure, but she was also a child. He grabbed the man’s arm and twisted, forcing the gun out of his hand. In retaliation, the criminal reared back a punch, which Peter dodged with practiced ease. He stumbled forward, and Peter grabbed his arm.

Peni screamed. He glanced over to her; she was glitching. He slammed his fist into the man’s face, sending him sprawling to the ground. “Call the police,” he ordered the clerk, already running toward Peni. The clerk nodded and disappeared into the store. “Peni,” Peter said softly. “It’s okay.” By then, her glitching had stopped. She struggled to her feet. 

“You got him! Great job, Mr. Parker!” Something about hearing her say his name for the first time was incredibly sad, given the circumstances. He took her hand and led her away. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help more.”

“You were great. It’s not your fault.” He ruffled her hair as they walked through the streets. “What are you looking for? What do you want to do?”

“Well, we already fought people, so maybe we should…” she trailed off. “Actually, I don’t know. What do you want to do?” Peter glanced around, looking for an idea. His eyes landed on the fire escape of a tall building. He shot Peni a look, and she nodded and took off running, scaling the thing with surprising ease. He followed at the same speed but with more controlled enthusiasm. Within a few moments, they were standing on the roof, overlooking the city. It must have looked strange to any onlookers, a man in a heavy coat and a little girl dressed in clothing hundreds of years out of place watching the city from above. “This is so cool! Your New York is so different from mine!” Her eyes shone in the daylight. Suddenly, Peni pointed out to a spot in the city. “Look! I live there!” He followed her finger out to a spot in the city. 

“If I remember correctly, there’s a bookstore there right now.”

“Can we go see it?” He nodded and went to climb down. She followed him. About a third of the way down, Peni glitched, and then she was falling and he had to do something because it was a long fall and if she hit the ground she would die and he needed to keep her alive for as long as possible. He released a stream of webbing toward her, but it blasted through her as she tumbled to the ground. Peter launched himself off of the ladder toward the street, already bracing himself for the impact. As he fell, he lashed out a web, pulling Peni tight into his chest. He landed heavily on the ground with a thump, pain shooting up his leg, but he didn’t care. The glitches were getting worse, which meant Peni didn’t have much longer. Rather than put her down, he carried her against him as they walked through the streets. At one point, she nudged him. He stopped.

“What’s the matter?”

“I can walk, you know.”

“‘Fraid I’m not gonna let you do that, kid.” In response, she pushed her way closer to him and smiled. He squeezed her tighter as they made their way through the monochrome streets he called home. Somewhere along the way, he felt her breathing shift into a slow, steady rhythm that meant she was asleep. Peter smiled softly. She needed the rest, even if it wouldn’t matter soon. By the time they reached the bookstore, she was pretty firmly asleep. He took her inside and set her in a chair. The manager came over, likely to complain, but Peter shot him a look, shaking his head, and he walked away. 

He browsed the books in silence, unsure if he was even looking for something, or just pass the time. He shot a glance at Peni, just to be sure she was okay. At that moment, she began to glitch, shocking her awake with a shout. The manager glared at him as he went to pick her up, only for her to fall through the chair, convulsing. He quickly shoved it out of the way for when she stopped glitching. The manager looked confused, but Peter knelt over Peni as she finally stopped glitching out. 

“Where…”

“The bookstore, like you asked.”

“Thank you, Mr. Parker.” She clambered to her feet sleepily. “This is it, huh? Couple hundred years, and I’ll live here. I should buy something, out of respect for me.” He nodded as she went skipping off into the children’s section. Several minutes later, she returned with a book tucked under her arm. “I like this one. Let’s go.” She reached into her pocket, only to freeze.

“Peni?”

“I only have money from my world and Miles’s.” Of course. He reached into his pocket. “Mr. Parker, you don’t need to, it’s fine. I don’t need a book I won’t have time to-” Peter shook his head and pulled out the money.

“It’s alright.” He handed the money to the cashier, who was staring at them quizzically. Peni smiled at him as they left. As they walked away, she glanced back at the store. 

“Thank you.” She leaned against him as they walked. It took Peter a moment to realize that they were making their way back toward his office, guided by blind instinct. He pulled her tighter against him. He loathed to admit it, but he was going to miss the kid so much. Even just knowing she was out there, even if he would never see her again, was better than having her die. Then she glitched. Her book fell to the pavement as her body sparked and crackled, flowing in every direction, and this time, it didn’t stop. He stopped and turned to face her, pulling her into his chest. She latched onto his coat, and he could feel her tears soak his shirt. More peculiar, he noted, were the tears he could feel running hot down his face. “I don’t- I’m- I’m not- I- I-”

“Shhh… I’ve got you.” He held her tight, as though to physically hold her dissolving atoms together, to keep her here, safe, alive.

“I- I-” Peni lurched with a single heavy sob, her entire weight on him. “I love you, Mr. Parker.” Her body shattered, finally crushed by the weight of her displacement, and, with that, Peni Parker was gone. 

“I love you too, Peni.” Peter rose to his feet slowly, slipping her body into his coat pocket and pulling out a match. Calmly, he lit it and watched it burn. It was awful what happened to Peni, but that was the way the world was in those days, and the best thing one could do is keep moving forward, regardless of what happened. And so, match burning a silvery flame and book weighing heavy in his pocket, Peter Parker vanished into the dark streets of New York.


End file.
